Part 3

_William._ Should not I want it myself?

_Grandfather._ You would be pleased to see him delighted with it, and he would love you the better, and when _George_ goes out, and you stay at home, if you love him as well as you do yourself, you will be happy to see his joy.

_William._ I shall be happy to see his joy.

_Grandfather._ Your parents are always watching over you all, for your good; in order to correct what is amiss in your tempers, and teach you how you ought to behave; they will rejoice to see you fond of each other, and will love you all the better.

_William._ Grandpa, I remember that my brother wrote a piece last _Christmas_, which you called Brotherly Love.—I wish I could remember it.

_Grandfather._ I recollect it;—you shall learn to repeat it.

_William._ I shall like that; pray let me hear it now, sir.

_Grandfather._ You shall.

“The children of our family should be like the fingers on a hand; each help the other, and each in his separate station promote the good of the whole. The joy of one should be the joy of the whole. Children in a house should agree together like the birds in a nest, and love each other.”

_William._ I thank you grandpa: I remember _Watts’_ hymn:

“Birds in their little nests agree, “And ’tis a shameful sight, “When children of one family, “Fall out and chide and fight.”

The master _Rebels_ often fight; many say that it is jealousy that makes them do so.—Pray, grandpa, what is jealousy?

_Grandfather._ A passion which I hope will never enter your breast. Your excellent parents love you all equally, and take care to make it appear that they do so. A good parent looks around with equal love on each child, if all be equally good, and each be kind to the rest. When a family is affectionate, how happy is every member of it! each rejoiceth at the happiness of the rest, and so multiplies his own satisfactions. Is any one distressed? the tender and compassionate assistance of the rest mitigates where it cannot wholly relieve his pain!

“Our joys when thus shared are always increas’d, “And griefs when divided are hushed into peace.”

THE USEFUL PLAY.

_First Girl._ Let us lay words. Where is the box?

_Second Girl._ How do you play?

_First Girl._ I will show you. Here I give you c, e, u, h, q, and n; now place them so as to make a word.

_Second Girl._ It is _quench_!

_First Girl._ You are quick; now let us pick out some words for _Charles_. What shall we choose?

_Second Girl._

Let us lay thrust, thresh, branch, ground, school, thirst, quince, quail, and dearth.

_First Girl._

I will lay plague, and neigh, and nought, and naught, and weight, and glare, and freight, and heart, and grieve, and hearth, and bathe, and thread, and vaunt, and boast, and vault, and tongue, and grieve, and beard, and feast, and friend, and fraught, and peace, and bread, and grape, and breath, or the verb to breathe, and thought, and grace, and mouse, and slave, and chide, and stake, and bought.

_Second Girl._ I shall like the play, and it will teach _Charles_ to spell well.

_First Girl._ That is its use: we have sports of all kinds to make us quick: we have some to teach us to count; else I could not have been taught to do sums at three years old.

_Second Girl._ Were you?

_First Girl._ Yes; I was through the four rules by the time that most boys learn that two and two make four.

_Second Girl._ I wish you would teach me some of your sports; that I could teach _Charles_.

_First Girl._ Print words on a card; on the back write the parts of speech; let it be a sport for him to try if he can find what each one is; let him have the words, and place them so as to make sense; thus I give you these words:

_you_, _done_, _do_, _be_, _would_, _by_, _as_.

Place them in their right order, and make

_Do as you would be done by_.

Or give him two or three lines: here and there scratch out a word; let him tell what those words must be to make sense.

_Second Girl._ The card on which you have a, b, c, and so on, might have a, b, c, made with a pen at their backs, to teach written hand.

_First Girl._ I have a set of those; I could read my mother’s writing when I was four years old.

_Second Girl._ I will buy some prints or cuts, and paste at the back of cards, for our little ones; so they will soon learn to distinguish nouns. On one side shall be DOG; I will ask what part of speech is that? _Charles_ will say, Is it not a noun?—He will turn the card, and find a cut.

_First Girl._ Let us prepare some words of all kinds; we can lay sentences for little ones to read. For _Lydia_, we will place them thus:

_Our new dog._ _An old cat._

My mother says that three words are as much as a child could read in a breath at first.

_Second Girl._ Where there is a house full of young folks, it might be good sport to teach and learn in these ways.

_First Girl._ It is; we play with our words thus; mother gives to one some words; he is to place them so as to make sense: one is to parse them: one to tell more than the parts of speech, as the tense, mode and so on, of the verbs.—_George_ and I have false _English_ to correct; verse to turn to prose; we write out a passage which we like; we write letters upon given subjects; we read a story, and then write it in our own words.

_Second Girl._ Do you repeat much?

_First Girl._ To strengthen our memories, we learn to repeat passages in _prose_—we also repeat _verse_, and read it aloud.

_Second Girl._ That is a great pleasure.

_First Girl._ Yes, and my mother reads aloud to us; this teaches us to read with propriety; and she often stops to inquire whether we understand any expression which is not perfectly plain.

THE END.

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 18 Changed: Bo as you are bid to: Do as you are bid